Shiel,
M. P., “The Chase,” Chapter XVIII of Contraband
of War, Pearson’s Weekly, #415, 2 July 1898, page 825, includes a
description of the island, including, “From the summit a view (which the present writer has twice enjoyed) is
obtained for many a mile over the sea as far as the coasts of Nevis to the
North, and Montserrat to the South.”

Shiel,
M. P., “About Myself” in The Novels of M. P.
Shiel, London: Victor Gollancz, Ltd, [1929], a pamphlet issued to
promote reissues of Shiel’s novels. [Reprinted in A. R. Morse, The Works of M. P. Shiel, Volume III, The Shielography Updated, part two,
Cleveland: Morse Foundation, 1980, 669-674.A revised and annotated version, first published in the original 1948
edition of Morse’s book, is also reprinted at 417-422.In the 1929 original and in the revised
version Morse published in 1948 Shiel uses “Rodundo” for “Redonda” which
appears to be a local Montserratian variant of the name.John Gawsworth standardized the spelling as
“Redonda” in 1950 in Science, Life and Literature,
a practice Morse followed in the update of his Shiel bibliography in 1980.]

[Ransome,
Arthur, as] “R,” "New Novels,"Manchester Guardian, 22
March 1929, p. 7.In his review of the
Gollancz reissues, Ransome drew on the facts given in "About Myself"
in the Gollancz promotional booklet: "Born in the West Indies, crowned
king of an island on his fifteenth birthday,..."Ransome, who wrote of Shiel in Bohemia in London (1907) and his Autobiography (1976), was apparently the
first reviewer to allude to the legend.In 1947 he would be duked by Gawsworth in State Paper No 1.

Shiel,
M. P., letter to Annamarie Miller Gross dated Nov 23, 1931: “Another time I
will tell you about myself when I was a boy, since you ask.I was crowned King when I was fifteen, but my
Kingdom was only a great rock (named Rodundo)...”Morse Collection, Olin Library, Rollins
College, Winter Park, Florida. [Published in Squires, John D., editor, M. P. Shiel and the Lovecraft Circle: A Collection of
Primary Documents Including Shiel’s Letters to August Derleth, 1929-1946,
Kettering, Ohio: The Vainglory Press, 2001, 109-110.]

Jepson,
Edgar, Memories of an Edwardian and New
Georgian, London: Grant Richards, 1937, 242. [The footnote in which
the reference appeared was omitted from the “New and Cheaper” edition of this
book published in London by Martin Secker in 1938, though the index still
includes “ghost” references to John Gawsworth and “Matthew I, King of
Rodundo”at page 242.Gawsworth’s
Appendices to the first edition were also dropped from the Secker reprint.]

“Poets
At Dinner: Novelist King,” Daily Sketch,
(October 20, 1937.) [Brief account of aconversation with Shiel about Redonda at a Poets’ Club dinner.]

“Author
is King of Isle His Father Seized With Own Navy,” Sunday Referee, (October 24, 1937) [An interview with Shiel
triggered by the Daily Sketch
article.Reprinted as “Science-Fiction
Author is King of Island” in Tomorrow,
Vol. 2, No 3., Autumn, 1938, page 13. ]

“Island
King Now Lives In A Cottage,” The Star,
(October 26, 1937) [An interview with Shiel triggered by the Daily Sketch article.]

Moss,
Norman, “Juan Prefers London: My Kingdom for a Pub, Says King of Redonda,”
[copy of clipping in Morse collection, but without publication data.Appears to be from an Englishnewspaper around 1959. “...The Purple Cloud was recently made into
the film, Odds Against Tomorrow
with Harry Belafonte...”Actually, Odds Against Tomorrow was a different
Belafonte movie.The film loosely based
on Shiel’s novel was The World the Flesh and
the Devil (MGM, 1959.)]

Fawcett,
F. Dubrez, “King of All the Seagulls,” Men
Only, No 75, London, (November, 1960):58-60[Reprinted Works III,
683-684.]

Howard,
Richard A., “Botanical and Other Observations on Redonda, The West Indies,” Journal of the Arnold Arboretum, Vol. XLIII,
No. 1, (January 1962): 51-66. [Reprinted in Works
III, 703-711.]

“Poetic
Peerage,” Daily Telegraph,
(September 26, 1970) [article on Redonda’s peerage and Gawsworth’s death.In his essay in The Cornish Review, Winter 1972, Arthur Caddick gives the
date of this article as September 27, and notes a separate obituary notice on
Gawsworth in the Daily Telegraph
on September 26 which also mentioned the Redonda legend.]

“John
Gawsworth will be cremated...,” Times,
(September 26, 1970.) [A separate death notice appeared in the same issue.]

Derleth,
August, The Arkham Collector, No
8 (Winter 1971): 253. [Obituary note on Gawsworth, presumes the Kingdom will
lapse with his death.]

Rigge,
Simon, "The British Empire", Time-Life Books weekly part no 24
(1972), 665. [A page on Redonda includes two old illustrations of the mining
operations (also reprinted in Morse’s Quest
For Redonda) and a paragraph which concludes: "The two major
events in its history occurred in 1865; natives from Antigua began
phosphate-digging and an obscure Irishman landed and proclaimed himself 'King,'
so initiating a crank dynasty that survives in London under its present
'monarch' who till recently managed a pub in the Tottenham Court Road."]

Caddick,
Arthur, “Marks of Royal Favor”, The Cornish
Review, ed by Denys Val Baker, No 22, Winter 1972, 4-21. [Recounts
two visits to the author in Cornwall by a very drunken and ailing Gawsworth in
1968 and 1970.Gawsworth is several
times referred to as “the ex-king of Redonda, ” though he continued to grant
titles “in the exercise of Our Abdication Prerogative...”No royal successor is mentioned.Indeed, the article begins: “Let two extracts
from London’s Daily Telegraph introduce these heitherto-secret pages from the
archives of a Royal House that is no more, and all its high lineage brought
low.”]

“Is the
King of Redonda Redundant?”, Daily Mail,
(Jan 29, 1979.) [Reprinted in Works III,
714.]

Ferguson,
Malcolm M., “Arkham House and Its Eldritch English Visitants,” August Derleth Society Newsletter, Vol 3,
no 1, (1979):1-2.

Morse,A. Reynolds, The Works of M. P. Shiel, Vol. III, The Shielography Updated, part two,
Cleveland: The Reynolds Morse Foundation, 1980.[A volume of miscellany and biographical data.Besides reprinting The Quest for Redonda, it includes Morse’s account of the
Gawsworth years and his analysis of the post Gawsworth succession.]

Fletcher,
Ian, “John Gawsworth: The Aesthetics of Failure,” The Malahat Review: An International Magazine of Life and Letters,
no. 63 (University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada), (October
1982): 206-219.

hero
sails from England to the West Indies & visits various islands, renamed but
based on those associated with Shiel.Montserrat is "Monesterio."Redonda appears as "Zafada".The first king is "Scully" rather than Shiel,
"Christopher Rutherford" is Gawsworth, but the legend gets retold
throughout the novel.

Anonymous.
“The Caribbean's one and only king.” LIAT
Islander, 16, July 1987, 24-26. (An illustrated article about
Redonda and a pretender to the throne, Aleph Kamal, who was apparently
associated with The Police rock group).

O’Coineen,Enda, The
Unsinkable Kilcullen, London: The Bodley Head, 1987.[Chapter 16, “Becoming a Lord” includes an
account of the legend and the author’s journey to Redonda.]

David,
Hugh, The Fitzrovians: A Portrait of
Bohemian Society1900-55,
London: Michael Joseph, 1988, 166.[“...after unsuccessfully attempting to sell his title - he nominated a
Tottenham Court Road publican as successor to the throne of Redonda.”]

, “A History of Redonda,” in The
Kingdom of Redonda, 1865-1990 ed. by Rev. Paul de Fortis, Cheshire:
The Alysford Press, 1991, 19-41.

O’Shaughnessy,Hugh, Around
the Spanish Main: Travels in the Caribbean and the Guianas, London:
Century, 1991, 61; 94-95.

“Kingmaker
of the Island that Columbus ignored,” The
Hampstead and Highgate Express, (March 13, 1992): 2. [Paul de
Fortis’ role in promoting “King” Cedric recounted on the occasion of de Fortis’
bizarre accidental death.]

Kohn,
Marek, “Letter from Bohemia: From Guano to Soho: go for it,” The Independent, (Saturday May 16, 1992.)

Dyde,
Brian, Caribbean Companion: The A-Z
Reference, London and Basingstoke: The MacMillian Press Ltd., 1992.
[Includes a short biographical note on Shiel at p 152: “If he is remembered
today it is usually in connection with a ridiculous tale he made up in 1929
about his being the ‘King’ of Redonda.This is unfortunate as he has every claim to be recognized as the first
West Indian novelist, writing in English, to have established a reputation
outside the Caribbean.”]

Coram,Robert, Caribbean
Time Bomb: The United States Complicity in the Corruption of Antigua,
New York: William Morrow and Company, 1993.[Redonda and the legend is discussed in chapter 9, “Guano and
Literature”, 84-95.]

Bowker,
Gordon, Through the Dark Labyrinth: a
Biography of Lawrence Durrell, London: Sinclair-Stevenson, 1996,
328. [“Gawsworth wrote a pathetic letter...He had also abdicated as King of
Redonda, eight months before.”]

Fergus,
Howard A., Gallery Montserrat: Some
Prominent People in Our History,Kingston: Canoe Press University of the West Indies, 1996, 37-38.
[Includes a brief profile of Shiel & the Redonda legend.]

[“Rawhead
and Bloody Bones” is a surreal novella which includes as a minor character,
“John Gor’blimeysworth, the exiled King of Redonda,” who is killed at
53-60.Another character proclaims at
page 73, “Now the Redondan throne is empty and the sons of Conch-Shiel will
squabble over possession...”On page 86
“...we learn about a coup d’état on the isle of Redonda which has led to a
short-wave personage known as Gamma-Ray Russell assuming power.”]

Dyde,
Brian, Antigua and Barbuda: The Heart of the
Caribbean, Third edition, London and Basingstoke: MacMillian
Education Ltd, 1999. [First edition, 1986, Second edition, 1993.Chapter 14, “Redonda” discusses the history
of the island, dismissing the legend as an invention to help promote the 1929
Shiel reissues by Gollancz, 133-137.]

Fergus,Dr. Howard, Gallery
Montserrat: Prominent People in Montserrat's History, Jamaica,
Trinidad and Barbados: Canoe Press, 2000. [Profiles 49 persons who have
featured prominently in the history of Montserrat, including Shiel as “King of
Redonda.”Presumably a reprint of the
1996 edition.]

Marías,
Javier, Dark Back of Time, trans
from the Spanish by Esther Allen, New Directions, 2001.

Dark Back of Time,
reviewed, Publishers Weekly,
March 26, 2001, 64.“The second half of
this novelis a virtuoso digression on
the seedily adventurous circle around a minor British poet and Oxford figure,
Gawsworth.Marías has an antiquarian’s
taste for history’s minor characters, in whose lives fact flows easily into
fiction and back again.”

A Heart so White and Dark Back of Time, reviewed by Wendy
Lesser, The New York Times Book Review,
May 6, 2001, 26-27.“Has Marías himself
set up the whole dispute – perhaps the whole [Gates] Redonda site – as yet
another literary game?”

Squires,
John D., editor, M. P. Shiel and the
Lovecraft Circle: A Collection of Primary Documents Including Shiel’s Letters
to August Derleth, 1929-1946, Kettering, Ohio: The Vainglory Press,
2001. [Reprints Derleth’s “The Realm of Redonda” with various other minor mentions
of the legend, particularly at page 101.]

Holloway,
Mark, “John Gawsworth: A Memoir,” with an Introduction by Jon Wynne-Tyson.
[Unpublished draft of article announced for possible publication in2003?Squires collection.]

Squires,
John D., “My Discovery of William B. Seabrook,” New York Review of Science Fiction, No 181, Vol 16, No 1,
September 2003, 1; 4-5. [Speculates that Seabrook’s account of the crowning of
Faustin Wirkus as king of La Gonave in the February 4, 1928 Collier’s may have inspired Shiel to
finally go public with the Redonda story in “About Myself” the following year.]

Anderson,
Dorothy & Shiell, Richard, The Shiell
Family of the Caribbean Island of Montserrat, Melbourne, 2005.

Hutchison,
Henry, "REALM OF REDONDA" : A
Definitive History of the Island-Kingdom of Santa Maria la Redonda in the West
Indies, The Redondan Foundation: Thurlton, Norwich, 2005. [A4
format, soft cover; 78 pages, seven chapters, 38 illustrations, with 2004
Membership List; Index & References.The history of the legend from the perspective of a supporter of William
Gates’ claim.]

Maclaren-Ross,
Julian, Bitten by the Tarantula and other
writing ['other writing' l.c. on cover and title page], edited by
Paul Willetts, London: Black Spring Press, [http://www.blackspringpress.co.uk]
2005.Includes “The Strange Realm of M.P.
Shiel', pp. 457-468, reprinted from the London
Magazine, 1964, £9.95. [The book is a collection of fiction, essays
and literary parodies.]

Angus Deayton presents the remarkable tale of
Redonda, an uninhabited rock in the Caribbean annexed by the British in the
1870s and now claimed by as many as nine competing kings.Previous monarchs have included eccentric
science fiction author Matthew Shiel and poet John Gawsworth.

Contributors
include writers AS Byatt, Fay Weldon and Brian Aldiss [sic, Stableford], plus
Redondan royals Jon Wynne Tyson and King Robert the Bald.

Staff
Reporter, “Hunt is over in search to find Caribbean island queen,” Bolton Evening News and Bury Times, 28 May
2007. [Article on resurfacing of Maggie Parry in Spain. "I was rather
surprised when my friends rang me. I've always been aware of my family's
connection to the island and visited Redonda about 14 years ago.

"It's
very mountainous and completely uninhabited, although there was a small mining
community living there until the 1950s."

Mrs
Parry, a widow in her 50s with four children and four grandchildren, used to
run Parry Contracts Furniture factory in Bolton and lived in Ramsbottom.

The
Times of Redonda, Winter 2008. Occasional newsletter issued by William Gates
(aka King Leo).Recounts the sudden
appearance of one William Leo Timlin in the Kingdom of Redonda entry at Wikipedia,
who claimed to have received an assignment of the throne from King Leo.Gates denies knowledge of this pretender or
that any assignment occurred.(Page 3)

Duffy,
John, 1 September 2009, “DEATH OF KING OF REDONDA,” Press Release about the
death of[pretender] Robert the Bald on
27 August 2009 and claimed succession of Michael Howorth as King Michael the
Grey.

Fletcher,
Guy, “A Day Trip to Redonda - aka 'we must have been mad' ”.2010 Blog account by a member of the rock
band “Dire Straits” (who recorded their album “Brothers in Arms” on Montserrat
at Air studios ), of a wind surfing journey from Montserrat to Redonda in
December, 1984.Includes brief account
of the legend reflecting “new” misinformation.The post office photographed by Morse in 1979 was still standing.

Marías,
Javier, Negra espalda del tiempo,
Madrid: Alfaguara, 1998.A novel with
autobiographical elements, including the author’s account of the Redonda Legend
and his ascension to Jon Wynne-Tyson’s claims as King.

Merino,
Ignacio, "His Majesty Javier Marías. Reality and fiction come to the
writer's assistance as he settles accounts with his enemies or reveals how he
came to inherit the Caribbean Island of Redonda," El Mundo, Madrid, (May,10th, 1998.) [The
article deals mainly with Negra espalda del
tiempo and All Souls,
JM's 1989 novel in which he mentioned JG and Redonda for the first time, but
also briefly retells the Redonda legend. Although MPS isn't mentioned by name,
an illustration taken from the novel reproduces the four kings' reigning and
"civil" names.]

Marías,
Javier, “Reino De Redonda” is a column by published weekly in El Semanal.The issue published April 16, 2000 included
at page 10 part one of “Este reino junto al mar.”Completed at page 10 of the April 23, 2000
issue as “This kingdom by the sea,” this is Mr. Marías’ summary of the Redonda
legend and his succession to Jon Wynne-Tyson’s interests as executor and
“king.”

, “Only Air and Smoke and Dust,” a Prefatory Note to La Mujer De Huguenin by M. P. Shiel,
translated into Spanish by Antonio Iriarte, Barcelona: Reino de Redonda,
2000.The book,a selection of six short stories, also
includes as appendices Shiel’s “About Myself” in Spanish and English, a number
of illustrations, and lists of Redondan titles and offices created by John
Gawsworth, Jon Wynne-Tyson and Javier Marías, respectively.

The next nine articles report on the press conference held
by Javier Maríason Friday, July 7,
2000.All of them retell, with more or
less detail, the story of Shiel’s kingdom of Redonda and its succession. The
first three kings are duly mentioned, as are the titles of nobility bestowed by
them, and by JM .Shiel’s importance as
a writer is usually left in the background, although the book and the
publishing house are, of course, mentioned as well.

de
Tuesta,Mª José Díaz, “Writer Javier Marías makes his debut as
publisher with a fantastic literature series. The author creates ‘Reino de
Redonda’, a publishing house which opens with a book by M.P. Shiel”, El País, Madrid, (July 8, 2000): 40.

Palacios,
Elena F., “Javier Marías inherits a Caribbean island and creates a new publishing
house. The writer is the current King of Redonda, a phantasmagoric title, empty
of any real contents, which was held by other writers before him,” Diario 16, Madrid, (July 8, 2000): 52.

Yebra,
Tomás García, “Javier Marías creates a publishing house. He has just
“inherited” an island in the Caribbean,” El
Heraldo de Aragón, Zaragoza, (July 8, 2000.)

Merino,
Juan Carlos, “Javier Marías makes his debut as a publisher with an anthology of
fantastic tales by Shiel. All Souls
author inherits the crown of the Caribbean island of Redonda, establishes a
court of writers and movie makers, and plans to publish two books per year,
with a Catalan edition by Columna.” In a box, on the same page, a potted
biography of M. P. Shiel: “Profile: First King of Redonda and Science Fiction
forerunner”, by M. Bach, La Vanguardia,
Barcelona, (July 8, 2000): 47.

“Javier
Marías turns publisher and creates the firm ‘Reino de Redonda’”. Press agency
release.A good summary, with mention of
Shiel and of the book.El Día de Valladolid, Valladolid, (July 8,
2000.)

“Javier Marías ‘inherits’ a Caribbean island
and creates a new publishing house. The writer narrates this amazing story in
his novel Dark Back of Time. The
island kingdom has several high officials appointed by the author”. COLPISA –a
press agency-. Neither Shiel nor the book are mentioned.Canarias 7,
Las Palmas, (July 8th, 2000.)

mª A.
S.-V, “Books:An ex libris in the shape
of an island. Javier Marías launches a new publishing house named after ‘his’
island, Redonda.”Mentions both Shiel
and the book, but deals mainly on JM’s nobility list and official appointments.
El Semanal, no. 665, (July 23,
2000): 16.

Conte,Rafael,“For
a circular literature,” ABC Cultural
[weekly arts supplement to ABC],
Madrid, No. 444, (July 29, 2000): 23.[A
review of La mujer de Huguenin
which retells at some length the Redonda legend and JM’s creation of a
publishing house, but has only a few comments on the book itself.This issue also includes at page 4,F@r Web:
“M.P. Shiel” by R.P. This column discusses literary web sites. This week’s is
dedicated to Shiel. After a brief mention of JM’s publishing venture, and of La mujer de Huguenin, the author comments
on three web sites. Alan Gullette’s is rated the best.]

Guelbenzu, José María,“The Memory of the Kingdom,”El
País (Babelia No.
462), Madrid, (September 30, 2000.) [A review of La mujer de Huguenin, which also discusses the Redonda
Legend.“These tales frequently offer us
memorable moments, particularly so in the descriptive passages...Shiel also is
a creator of accurate expressions, finely tuned by the precision of the words
employed and their power of evocation (such as this one: “and his lower back had
quite the forward curve of age”).]

Romero, César, “Reino De La Ficción”
[“Kingdom of Fiction”], In ?, 18 Jan 2001.Areview of La mujer de Huguenin,
with brief summaries of the careers of Shiel, Marías, & the Redonda
Legend.Javier Marías described as
current king.“All these stories make
one shudder and hold in one’s breath; they all display Shiel’s powerful style,
thanks to A. Iriarte’s magnificent translation.”

Marías, Javier, A veces un caballero, Madrid: Alfaguara, 2001. [Collection
of magazine essays, including his “Reino De Redonda” columns from El Semanal.The columns originally published April 16,
2000, “Este reino junto al mar,” and April 23, 2000, “This kingdom by the
sea,”with Mr. Marías’ summary of the Redonda legend and his succession to Jon
Wynne-Tyson’s interests as executor and “king,” are reprinted at pp 223-230.]

“El novelista surafricano J. M.
Coetzeelogra el I Premio Reino de
Redonda,” El País, Madrid, 25
April 2001, 36. [Article on the award of the first Reino de Redonda prize to
novelist John Michael Coetzee.]

“Coetzee gana el Premio Reino de Redonda,
creado por Javier Marías,” Diario16,
Madrid, 25 April 2001, 49.[Article on
the award of the first Reino de Redonda prize to novelist John Michael
Coetzee.]

Dinesen, Isak, Ehrengard, translated into Spanish and Introduced by Javier
Marías, Madrid: Reino de Redonda, May 2001. [Appendices include a selection of
Redondan illustrations and updated nobility lists.]

1.
Cover, original unsigned illustration, “Érase una vez un reino” (“Once upon a
time there was a Kingdom.”

2.
Pages 2-3, López, Óscar, “Súbditos de un cuento” (“Subjects of a tale”), An
account of the Redonda legend, including an interview with Marías.Also on page 2 is an adjacent boxwith brief bios of Shiel, Gawsworth,
Wynne-Tyson & Marías, and illustrations taken from the ISLAS issue of Waderno.

3.
Page 3, Marías, Javier, “Ha valido la pena” (“It was worth it”) brief account
of the first four years of his reign.“Regia editorial” a box discussing the creation of Reino de Redonda
publishing house